Phil Spector Charged With Murder

[stonemonkts]

Producer Phil Spector Charged With Murder
Sep 28, 8:22 AM (ET)

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

(AP) Music producer Phil Spector, left, charged in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, appears with his...




LOS ANGELES (AP) - Moments after he was indicted on murder charges in the 2003 death of a B-movie actress at his Alhambra mansion, music producer Phil Spector called prosecutors "reprehensible, unconscionable and despicable."

Spector, 64, railed at prosecutors after the indictment charging him with killing Lana Clarkson was read Monday in court. Outside, Spector compared District Attorney Steve Cooley to Adolf Hitler.

"The actions of the Hitler-like DA and his storm trooper henchmen are reprehensible, unconscionable and despicable," said Spector, who remains free on $1 million bail.

The charges were returned by a grand jury whose indictment superseded a murder case previously filed by prosecutors in November 2003, seven months after Spector's arrest.


A grand jury indictment would preclude the need for a preliminary hearing, in which prosecutors would have to present enough evidence to hold Spector for trial.

Spector's case had been scheduled for a Dec. 16 preliminary hearing, now canceled. Spector said his attorneys would have called to the witness stand three of the foremost forensic scientists and coroners in the world and each would have testified at that hearing that Clarkson, 40, shot herself.

Defense attorney Bruce Cutler also complained there was no preliminary hearing.

District attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said that was done in part to avoid any further delay in bringing Spector to trial for the Feb. 3, 2003, shooting.

"It's been almost two years since Ms. Clarkson was killed in Mr. Spector's home and it's time for a trial," she said. "We believe there is a crime. We charged a crime. And that crime is murder. Nothing is politically motivated in this case."

Clarkson, who was best known as the star of Roger Corman's cult film classic "Barbarian Queen," was working as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip when she went home with Spector on the night she died.

Judge David S. Wesley set Dec. 16 as the earliest possible trial date.

Spector, who did not speak in court except to say, "Yes, your honor," waived his right to a speedy trial.

The judge also agreed to keep the trial in Los Angeles rather than move it to Pasadena, which is closer to Spector's home. Attorneys for both sides expressed concern about the crush of news media representatives expected to attend, and the courtrooms in Los Angeles are bigger.

Spector is famed for creating rock music's "Wall of Sound" recording technique in the 1960s that has influenced the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and many others.

[Enforcer]

I mean, I understand that sometimes you have to hurt people really bad. And yes, there is a time and a place when you have to end someone's life if the disagreement is severe enough. But this is just ridiculous, if he did it. I can't believe Spector could think this was the best solution to his problem. For starters, he could have just threatened her life and left it at that. Now, he may never see the outside of a jail cell for the rest of his life after this is settled.

Curious how many people are taking him seriously,
Larry

[Brian Olewnick]

Anyone who looks like that is guiltier than sin of anything he's charged with. If he's lucky, he gets sent to the special Poodle Prison.

[Gentle Giant]

Re his looks, I'm trying to figure out what the cross is. Right now, I'm thinking Dustin Hoffman and Tina Turner.

He's indicted on the same day that Brian Wilson's SMiLE is released (which I just purchased minutes ago and it's sensational! See the SMiLE thread.). I'd say Brian is the one with the mojo working today.

[Root Doctor]

Phil's looking at a possible prison stay all wrong. Just imagine what the echo is like in one of those humongous showers.

[Valerie]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Re his looks, I'm trying to figure out what the cross is. Right now, I'm thinking Dustin Hoffman and Tina Turner.

what's interesting is that given what he's looked like lately, he actually cleaned up for his court appearance!

[Tanager]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Re his looks, I'm trying to figure out what the cross is. Right now, I'm thinking Dustin Hoffman and Tina Turner.

Apropos to LA criminal proceedings, he's got a post-perm Marcia Clark (or whatever her name was) groove going, IMHO. There's also a bit of Christine Whitman there as well. I definitely see the Dustin thing, though.

[Boris Badenov]

I wonder who really pulled the trigger that night? Could it have been ... SATAN???

[stonemonkts]

That headshot would make for a smashing avatar.

[clinthopson]

I saw his face in a mural depicting the torments of hell at Santa Maria Novella in FLorence.

[Tanager]

Originally Posted by stonemonkts

That headshot would make for a smashing avatar.

Enjoy.

[Enforcer]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Re his looks, I'm trying to figure out what the cross is. Right now, I'm thinking Dustin Hoffman and Tina Turner.

Replace Dustin with any of the following: Pee-Wee Herman, Larry Brown, Paul Shafer, Dana Carvey.

[Dr Dave]

He's free on bail? Hope the judge took his passport.

[Cem]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

Dana Carvey.

No kidding! Isn't that special?!

[Boris Badenov]

See post #9, dudes.

[Cem]

I wish I could say great minds, Boris...

[HenryMc]

oh? Of his lover?

What he did to the Beatles "let it be"wasn't pretty either!

[Captain Hate]

Originally Posted by Root Doctor

Phil's looking at a possible prison stay all wrong. Just imagine what the echo is like in one of those humongous showers.

Great post, Root. Wall of Sound in the Big House, baby!!

[Lenny D.Guitarist]

Phil Spector habitually beat up Ronnie Spector like a rented mule. He's one screwy dude, if the 5,348 accounts of his bizarre behaviors are any indication.

[john williams]

I hate his wall of mud and socks sound.

[Deke]

Originally Posted by Lenny D.Guitarist

Phil Spector habitually beat up Ronnie Spector like a rented mule.

I saw her being interviewed on Jools Holland's show. I could hardly believe the story of how she actually had to break-out of her own home with the collusion of her mother just to get away from the guy.

He's one screwy dude, if the 5,348 accounts of his bizarre behaviors are any indication.

Nuts, I'm obviously out of touch with this story. Could you bring me up to date on numbers 5,259 - 5,347 please? (I'm assuming the court case will cover 5,348...)

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Hung jury. Judge may send them back.

[Sandi22]

He's certifiable and well off, a dangerous mix.

I couldn't believe the time Ronnie Spector was on television telling all about how it was for her. She's lucky to have gotten out of his clutch. She's lucky he didn't go after her and do to her what he threatened woman after woman with, and do what I believe he did to the woman whose death he's been tried for. I think she's really lucky. I mean lucky.

[Gentle Giant]

I hope they're not listening to Be My Baby in the jury room.

Convict the psycho bastard already!

[GoodSpeak]

So the little dweeb beat the rap, eh?


Be a star.

Commit a crime in La La Land.

Walk away a free man.








Nice.

[Gary Sisco]

Leave Phil Spector alone!

Goodie, I'm surprised at you. Is this really any time to pigpile on Phil Spector? In this difficult time? He doesn't have enough problems?

He's a human being! Leave him alone!

[Lenny D.Guitarist]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

So the little dweeb beat the rap, eh?


Be a star.

Commit a crime in La La Land.

Walk away a free man.








Nice.

What does it avail a man to gain a fortune yet lose his soul?

Ask OJ Simpson, Robert Blake, Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Vince McMahon, Michael Vick, Fatty Arbuckle, Jim Baker, Barry Bonds,the dude from Crazy Eddies, Denny McClain, Rae Carruth, Ivan Boesky, all the wonderful dudes from Enron, Adelphia, Worldcom, and any others you wish to include in this dastardly domicile.

[Sandi22]

Originally Posted by Tanager

Enjoy.

Looks like a cross between Richard Simmons and Pauly Shore, don't you think?

[Sandi22]

On a bad hair and make up day, throwing in a two week bender.

[Gentle Giant]

Spector gets 19 years to life for Clarkson's death
By Linda Deutsch, AP Special Correspondent | May 29, 2009

LOS ANGELES --Music producer Phil Spector has been sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

A Los Angeles judge sentenced Spector on Friday to 15 years to life for second-degree murder and four years for personal use of a gun. The judge is also ordering restitution payments.

A jury convicted the 69-year-old Spector in the fatal shooting of Clarkson at his home in 2003.

Spector plans an appeal.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Six years ago, Phil Spector was barely a blip on the American celebrity radar screen. Although his music lived on, his name and face were only dimly recalled by rock music aficionados until a shooting at his Alhambra mansion propelled him to notoriety.

Now he faces sentencing Friday on second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson, a conviction that suggests to some that California prosecutors have broken a decades-long string of celebrity murder case losses. The names O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake come to mind.

But Spector is in a class of his own. He was not a performer, not a sports star with a following or a singer who captivated the public. He was a music producer, a behind-the-scenes guy whose ideas changed the sound of rock music. He invented the "Wall of Sound," a revolutionary recording technique. And he was known for bizarre behavior. Famous, yes. A celebrity? Not in today's pop culture.

Spector is a frail and ailing 69-year-old for whom the mandated minimum sentence of 15 years would likely be a life sentence. His lawyer says he is enduring jail by focusing on his plans to appeal.

"He's doing fairly well," said Doron Weinberg. "He's adjusting to the circumstances and settling down to wait out an appeal with high hopes. He feels he will win the appeal."

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler has little leeway in sentencing. The 15-years-to-life sentence is mandated by law. Fidler's only decision is whether to add three or four years for personal use of a gun. The prosecution has asked for four and the defense has said three years is appropriate.

Spector had two trials with essentially the same evidence. His first in 2007 was televised gavel to gavel and spectators flocked to the courtroom. But when the jury deadlocked after a five-month trial, his legal "dream team," which at times numbered half a dozen lawyers, bailed out.

By the time the second trial started in 2008, interest had waned. The judge ordered cameras turned off and only a handful of spectators and reporters stopped in sporadically to watch testimony.

The retrial lasted the same length of time as the first trial, but there was only one defense lawyer: Weinberg, a well-regarded veteran from San Francisco. A young woman prosecutor, Truc Do, was brought in to work with Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson. Most importantly, there was a new jury. The forewoman wept after the guilty verdict but gave no hint of what tipped the scales on the panel's decision except to say it was based on "all the evidence, all the testimony."

During jury selection, only a few panelists remembered Spector's heyday as producer of teen anthems including "To Know Him is to Love Him," The Ronette's "Be My Baby," The Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron" and The Righteous Brothers' classic, "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'." Spector also worked on a Beatles album with John Lennon.

Ironically, Clarkson didn't know Spector's music legacy either when she met him only hours before she wound up dead at his Alhambra "castle." The 40-year-old actress had starred in Roger Corman's 1985 cult film "Barbarian Queen," but in 2003 she was working as a hostess at the House of Blues nightclub, where she had to be told by a manager that Spector was an important man.

His time had passed. And Clarkson's career was also ebbing. Their fateful meeting, recounted in both trials, led to her death and the end of his life as he knew it. For the next six years he spent millions on lawyers as he sought to prove that Clarkson killed herself.

But what had happened inside his house was never clear. Clarkson's body was slumped in a chair in a foyer. A gun had been fired inside her mouth. Spector's chauffeur, the key witness, said he heard a gunshot, then saw Spector emerge holding a gun and heard him say: "I think I killed somebody."

Weinberg said forensic evidence proved that Clarkson shot herself and cited her desperation at not being able to get acting work. Jackson said the shooting fit the pattern of other confrontations between Spector and women, and Do said Spector would become "a demonic maniac" when he drank.

Much of the case hinged on the testimony of five women from Spector's past who said he threatened them with guns when they tried to leave his presence. The parallels with the night Clarkson died were chilling even if the stories were very old -- 31 years in one instance.

Weinberg said Spector's appeal will assert that the judge erred in allowing the women to testify.